Senegal to triple Darfur peacekeeping contingent

August 10, 2007 (DAKAR) — Senegal will triple the number of soldiers it has in Sudan’s Darfur region after international calls for contributions to a new U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission, the West African country’s government said on Friday.

The U.N. Security Council last month authorised up to 26,000 troops and police for Darfur and approved the use of force to protect civilians against violence which has driven more than 2.1 million people from their homes over the past four years.

Infantry soldiers will be drawn mainly from African nations if enough can be recruited. The mission will incorporate the under-equipped and under-financed 7,000 African Union troops already in Darfur, including more than 500 Senegalese.

“The head of state, his excellency Abdoulaye Wade, has decided to increase the Senegalese contingent in Darfur from 538 to 1,600,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Senegal has in the past threatened to withdraw from Darfur unless the overstretched AU force was given firm U.N. backing and said this month it would only send more soldiers for the new hybrid force if they had clear rights to defend themselves.

The former French colony, whose peacekeeping troops are widely respected in Africa, has lost five soldiers in Darfur.

The African Union said last week five other African nations — Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Egypt, Cameroon and Ethiopia — had pledged to provide troops for the new force while South Africa has also said it will consider sending more.

Sudan has promised to cooperate with the mission.

(Reuters)